Luk Warlop is Professor of Marketing, Dean Research & PhD at BI Norwegian Business School. He obtained a master degree in (organizational) psychology (1986) and an MBA (1988) at KU Leuven, and a PhD in marketing (1995) at the University of Florida. He studies individual consumer decision making and the social psychology of consumer behavior. His research has been published in J. Consumer Research, J. Marketing Research, J. Consumer Psychology, Int. J. Research in Marketing, J. Accounting Research, Management Science, J. Service Research, J. Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, and several others. His work has been recognized with two best paper awards (2000 and 2025) and two long term impact awards (2013 and 2023) at the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM), and with an IgNobel Prize. He is currently a board member at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, and he is Fellow and a former president of the European Marketing Academy (2018-2021). He has taught courses in consumer behavior, principles of marketing, corporate communication, brand management, and social marketing.
This research examines how the concreteness of product presentations influences consumers’ psychological ownership. Across six studies (and one in Web Appendix), we demonstrate that concrete (vs. abstract) mental processing of products increases psychological ownership, with downstream effects including elevated product valuation. Conversely, abstract descriptions reduce psychological ownership and encourage sharing or trading. We identify several moderators and boundary conditions for the effect, which support that the nature of concrete thinking allows feelings of ownership as it processes a product as a specific instance related to the self. The effect is strongest in an egocentric (self) perspective (vs. allocentric or other based), when the product is attractive, not yet strongly connected to the self and for individuals who seek uniqueness. These findings offer actionable insights for marketers responding to trends favoring temporary access over permanent ownership, suggesting that concrete language can enhance psychological ownership (for temporary access and product care), while abstraction can temper it (to support return, trade, or resale in circular models). This research connects psychological ownership to construal level theory and literature on linguistic concreteness, underscoring how strategic shifts in product representation can foster desired ownership behaviors in a landscape increasingly defined by flexible consumption and sustainable practices.
As artificial intelligence (AI) applications proliferate, their creators seemingly anticipate that users will make similar trade-offs between costs and benefits across various commercial and public applications, due to the technological similarity of the provided solutions. With a multimethod investigation, this study reveals instead that users develop idiosyncratic evaluations of benefits and costs depending on the context of AI implementation. In particular, the tensions that drive AI adoption depend on perceived personal costs and choice autonomy relative to the perceived (personal vs. societal) benefits. The tension between being served rather than exploited is lowest for public AI directed at infrastructure (cf. commercial AI), due to lower perceived costs. Surveillance AI evaluations are driven by fears beyond mere privacy breaches, which overcome the societal and safety benefits. Privacy-breaching applications are more acceptable when public entities implement them (cf. commercial). The authors provide guidelines for public policy and AI practitioners, based on how consumers trade off solutions that differ in their benefits, costs, data transparency, and privacy enhancements.
An online experiment and a large-scale correlational study show that the effects of a humor appeal in product advertising go beyond consumers’ general attitudes toward the ad and the advertised product. A humor appeal influences consumers’ perceptions of the advertised firms’ competence and warmth. Importantly, the competence and warmth signaling values of humor in advertising vary with the nature of the humor appeal. We specifically find that an incongruity resolution humor appeal enhances consumers’ impressions of the firms’ competence but only when consumers can resolve the incongruity. A tension relief humor appeal enhances consumers’ impressions of the firms’ warmth. Humorous self-disparagement reduces impressions of the firms’ competence, while other-disparagement reduces both warmth and competence firm impressions. We discuss how firms can use humor appeals in their marketing communication to signal their different qualities.
Previous research has extensively investigated the relationships that consumers create and maintain with their possessions. However, little is known about why material objects (compared to immaterial ones) may be particularly relevant for consumers' self-definition. In this research, we argue that being physically close to objects helps consumers to feel psychologically close to the more abstract meaning of these objects. Four experimental studies provide converging support for this reasoning. Specifically, these studies indicate that being proximal to an object reduces the psychological distance to the object's meaning and enhances the benefits that consumers associate with the object. Moreover, the effect of bodily proximity on perceived benefits is moderated by separation anxiety, such that consumers that are highly anxious about being separated from the object's meaning derive higher benefits from being proximal to it. The findings contribute to research on the extended self and highlight the potential importance of physical proximity as a motivational driver of consumer behavior.
Claus, Bart & Warlop, Luk (2022)
The Car Cushion Hypothesis: Bigger Cars Lead to More Risk Taking—Evidence from Behavioural Data
Car traffic and accidents involving cars create an enormous societal cost,particularly in terms of negative consequences for public health. Mitigating these effects is a daily concern for public and private institutions and people around the world. At least a subset of accidents is attributable to the amount of risk drivers allow in their driving, and in related behaviour like mobile phone use or substance abuse. Our study looks at the effect of car size on risk taking. While literature highlights several behavioural effects of car size, the direction of causality of these effects is not always clear, and empirical evidence lacking. Two behavioural and consequential studies support that car size affects risk taking in driving, and that this increase in risk taking generalizes to other domains as well. Based on these results and in line with literature showing that social stability and security can affect financial risk taking, we propose the “car cushion hypothesis”. This hypothesis suggests that bigger cars make people feel more secure, which affects their behaviour in terms of generalized risk taking. We discuss policy implications aimed at contributing to reducing the societal and public health cost of car traffic.
Block, Lauren; Vallen, Beth & Warlop, Luk (2022)
Consumer Centered Policy Inquiries: a Call to Explore Policy Through a Consumer Lens and Consumers Through a Policy Lens
The Journal of Public Policy and Marketing has long welcomed scientific inquiry at the intersection of public policy and consumer behavior. While the existence of this intersection feels like a given, defining the contours and borders of this intersection is arguably much grayer. It is not uncommon for readers and authors new to JPP&M to puzzle over whether their consumer research is policy-oriented enough, or question how their policy interest can be studied using methodologies characteristic of consumer research. To provide some insight, we define the body of work at the intersection of public policy and consumer behavior as consumer centered policy inquiries and provide an organizing framework for how to both define and characterize it.
Olsen, Lars Erling; Samuelsen, Bendik Meling, Pappas, Ioannis & Warlop, Luk (2022)
Broad vs. Narrow brand positioning: Effects on competitive brand performance
Purpose –Brand managers can choose among two fundamentally different brand positioning strategies. One is a broad brand strategy, focusing on many favorable brand associations. The other is a narrow brand strategy, focusing on just a few and thus more mentally accessible associations. Building on associative memory theory, the current article examines which of these brand positioning strategies performs better under dynamic market conditions. Design/methodology/approach – Three experiments test the effect of brand positioning strategy on memory accessibility and competitive brand performance. Study 1 tests how brand strategy (broad vs. narrow) affects defensive brand performance. Study 2 tests how broad vs. narrow brands perform differently in a brand extension scenario (offensive brand performance). Study 3 uses real brands and situation-based attributes as stimuli in a defensive scenario. Findings – The results show that a narrow brand positioning strategy leads to a competitive advantage. Narrow brands with fewer and more accessible associations resist new competitors more easily and have higher brand extension acceptance than do broad brands. Research implications – The article shows how to use accessibility as evidence of associative strength and test how accessibility influences competitive brand performance in a controlled experimental context. Practical implications – Brand managers would benefit from a narrow brand positioning strategy in accordance with the USP school of thought used by many marketing practitioners. Originality – The paper demonstrates that narrow brand positioning performs better than broad brand positioning in dynamic markets, and to our knowledge is the first to do so.
Dimitriu, Radu & Warlop, Luk (2022)
Is similarity a constraint for service to service brand extensions?
Are service brands constrained in launching new service offerings? Both research evidence and managerial wisdom suggest brands should extend to similar categories. However, in five studies using real-life brands - four experiments and one large-sample survey - we provide evidence that similarity is less of a constraint for service brands extending to other service categories (service-to-service extensions), compared to cases involving parent brands or extension categories of a product nature. Importantly, we demonstrate that such an effect occurs because service brands possess associations relevant across the spectrum of service categories. Our results suggest that service brand managers have the opportunity to stretch their brands to dissimilar service offerings; yet, they need to ensure the marketing execution does not make the brands’ service associations inaccessible to consumers. The findings suggest that even product brands can build service associations by adding service components to their offering, thus becoming “servitized” and better able to extend to dissimilar service categories. Overall, our work contributes to the academic debate documenting that the principles governing the management of product vs. service brands are not identical.
Javornik, Ana; Marder, Ben, Barhorst, Jennifer Brannon, McLean, Graeme, Rogers, Yvonne, Marshall, Paul & Warlop, Luk (2022)
'What lies behind the filter?’ Uncovering the motivations for using augmented reality (AR) face filters on social media and their effect on well-being
Augmented reality (AR) filters are a popular social media feature affording users a variety of visual effects. Despite their widespread use, no research to date has examined either ‘why’ people use them (i.e., motivations) or ‘how’ their usage makes people feel (i.e., well-being effects). Through the uses and gratifications theory supported by a sequential mixed-method approach (interviews N = 10 and survey N = 536), we provide three overarching contributions. First, based on prior literature and a qualitative study, we identify nine motivations that can potentially drive AR face filter usage on Instagram. Our survey indicates that seven of those motivations (e.g., creative content curation, social interactions) are significant drivers of usage behaviours, while two (true self-presentation and silliness) did not have a significant impact. Second, we provide nuanced insights into the multi-faceted nature of the self-presentation motives underpinning AR face filter use (ideal, true and transformed self-presentation). Lastly, we show filter usage can have both positive and negative well-being effects depending on the underlying motivation. The results offer important implications for policymakers, site designers and social media managers.
Javornik, Ana; Marder, Ben, Pizzetti, Marta & Warlop, Luk (2021)
Augmented self - The effects of virtual face augmentation on consumers' self-concept
Augmented reality mirrors are popular marketing tools that allow virtual try-on of products, such as makeup. We study how such sensory experiences affect consumer perception of the self, specifically the gap between actual and ideal attractiveness, and we conceptualise this change as augmented self. Over three lab experiments we show that viewing oneself in an AR mirror (as opposed to the regular mirror) affects the ideal-actual attractiveness gap and that this effect differs depending on a consumer’s self-esteem. Furthermore, we uncover that ideal self-congruence mediates this process. We also demonstrate that augmentation significantly changes variety-seeking. An additional survey-based study shows downstream effects of ideal self-congruence and ideal-actual gap on product choice and psychological well-being. While commercial immersive technologies are deployed to generate responses related to brands and products, this study demonstrates that the effects extend to consumers’ self-concept. We offer implications for academics and practitioners in marketing and human–computer interaction.
Service industries require rapid innovations in their service portfolios to gain and maintain competitive advantages. Service elimination is a potential tool for portfolio renewal, though it might threaten increased defection rates. To contribute to both service elimination and customer defection literature, this paper proposes a model of customer responses to service elimination, with practical implications for decision-makers in rapidly innovating telecommunication markets. In particular, the main study, conducted in the context of Hungary’s telecommunications sector, reveals that customers’ tenure, usage intensity, and age reduce the negative effects of a price increase on their defection; the price increase, degree to which customers interact with service providers, customer defection, and competitive effects in turn increase post–service elimination usage intensity. These findings suggest implementation strategies that can reduce customer defection following price increase due to service elimination, by focusing on new customers, light users, and the quality of customer interactions.
Cooperative motivation can be rooted in individual differences as well as in external factors, such as instructions from superiors, incentive schemes, policy agendas, or social relationships. Whereas cooperative motivation has generally been found to increase trust, in five studies conducted across different contexts (scenario-based, online with monetary consequences that were contingent on participants' decisions, in-class and laboratory face-to face negotiations), convergent evidence was found showing that trustees were trusted more when they were externally motivated to act cooperatively (vs. individualistically), though only when they already had a prosocial (vs. proself) social value orientation – i.e., internally driven positive care for others' (vs. their own) well-being. This finding was observed even when trustors had no explicit information about whether or how trustees were motivated by internal or external factors. The mediation analyses indicate that this effect is driven by trustors' perceptions of trustees' authenticity. Taken together, insight into how trustees' personalities and situations interact in predicting the level of trust granted to them is provided.
Because negotiation is an integral part of social life, negotiators with different social motives are likely to meet. When this happens, will they be able to handle their differences constructively? We examined the relations between dyads’ social motive composition (cooperative, individualistic, or mixed), negotiation behavior, and economic and relational outcomes. In a laboratory experiment, 108 simulated negotiations were audiotaped, transcribed and coded. For economic outcomes, mixed dyads achieved higher profits than cooperative and individualistic dyads did, and this effect was mediated mainly by the negotiators’ problem-solving strategies. For relational outcomes, mixed and cooperative dyads experienced higher relational capital than individualistic dyads did, and this effect was mediated mainly by relationship management strategies. A follow-up survey conducted seven months later revealed that relational capital persisted over time. Overall, the results indicate that mixed-dyad negotiations between individualists and cooperators may bring out the best in both types of negotiators, making these dyads more successful than homogenous dyads.
Denis, Etienne; Pecheux, Claude & Warlop, Luk (2020)
When Public Recognition Inhibits Prosocial Behavior: The Case of Charitable Giving
Commonly regarded as an important driver of donation behavior, public recognition also can reduce donations. With three studies, this research manipulates whether donors receive public, private, imposed, or optional forms of recognition; the results show that the influence of recognition on the decision to donate is moderated by donors’ need for social approval. Whereas public recognition improves charitable giving among people with higher need for approval, imposing recognition reduces donations among people with lower need, suggesting a potential crowding-out effect on prior motives (Study 1). This penalty for public recognition disappears when the public recognition is optional (Study 2). When public recognition is saliently imposed (not requested), donation likelihood increases, suggesting that donors’ potential concerns about observers’ suspicion of their true motives is reduced (Study 3). This research highlights conditions in which public recognition encourages charitable giving and paves the way for further research on social dimensions of generosity.
Zhao, Dongxing; Moeini-Jazani, Mehrad, Weltens, Nathalie, Van Gils, Michelle, Tack, Jan, Warlop, Luk & Van Oudenhove, Lukas (2020)
Subliminal fatty acid-induced gut-brain signals attenuate sensitivity to exteroceptive rewards in food but not in sex or financial domains, in healthy men
Background: Reward sensitivity can generalize across domains, but evidence for generalization of suppressive reward-related stimulation is sparse, especially in the context of interoceptive nutrient-related stimuli. We hypothesized that subliminal fatty acid-induced gut-brain signals could attenuate sensitivity to exteroceptive rewards, not only within the food domain but also across domains. Method: Intragastric infusion of 2.5g lauric acid (fat condition) or saline (saline condition) was administered to 59 healthy heterosexual male volunteers in a blinded fashion. To assess whether the resulting interoceptive signals attenuate reward sensitivity within the food domain, participants rated the palatability of food images and performed a progressive ratio task. To assess whether such attenuation effect generalizes to the sexual and financial reward domains, participants rated attractiveness of female face images and performed an intertemporal monetary choice task. Results: Participants’ ratings of food images were lower (F1,172 = 4.51, p=0.035, Cohen's d: -0.20) in the fat condition. The progressive ratio task terminated earlier in the fat condition compared to saline (F1,52 = 4.17, p=0.046, odds ratio = 0.31, 95%CI [0.11, 0.98]). Participants’ ratings of female face images did not differ between conditions (F1,172 = 1.85, p = 0.19, Cohen's d: -0.15). Moreover, the monetary discounting rate did not differ significantly between conditions. Conclusion: Overall, these findings suggest a domain-specific effect of subliminal fatty acid infusion on decreasing reward sensitivity.
AlBalooshi, Sumaya; Moeini-Jazani, Mehrad, Fennis, Bob M. & Warlop, Luk (2020)
Reinstating the resourceful self: When and how self-affirmations improve executive performance of the powerless
Research has found that lack of power impairs executive functions. In the present research, we show that this impairment is not immutable. Across three studies and focusing on inhibitory control as one of the core facets of executive functions, our investigation shows that self-affirmation attenuates the previously documented decrements in inhibitory control of the powerless (Studies 1-3). We also examine boundary conditions of this effect and demonstrate that self-affirmation is most effective insofar as the powerless lack self-esteem (Study 2). Finally, we directly test the underlying process of this effect and demonstrate that self-affirmation increases an efficacious self-view among the powerless, which in turn improves their inhibitory control abilities (Study 3). Overall, we conclude that reinstating an efficacious self-view through self-affirmation offsets the impairments in inhibitory control abilities of the powerless and reduces the cognitive performance gap between the powerless and the powerful.
Four studies provide evidence for a process by which a woman’s conspicuous consumption can serve as a deterrent to affiliative behaviors by materialistic men, via heightened perceptions of the woman’s financial standards for a romantic partner. Materialistic men report utilizing status and resources to attract women more than non-materialistic men. Materialistic men may therefore utilize information about a woman’s status-linked displays to better calibrate their financially-oriented mating efforts. Differential attention to more subtle displays of a woman’s luxury branded items appears to drive materialistic men’s disinterest in social interaction with a woman who conspicuously consumes. A woman’s conspicuous consumption causes materialistic men to rate a real interaction with that woman less favorably. For women, the opposite is observed, with non-materialistic women reacting more negatively to the interaction.
Although access-based services (ABS) offer many benefits, convincing consumers to use these service innovations remains challenging. Research suggests that contamination concerns are an important barrier to consumer adoption of ABS; they arise when a person believes someone else has touched an object and transferred residue or germs. However, systematic examination of this phenomenon is lacking. We conduct four experiments to determine (1) the impact of contamination concerns on consumer evaluations of ABS, (2) when such concerns become salient in ABS, and (3) how ABS providers can reduce these concerns. The results reveal that consumers experience more contamination concerns about objects used in proximity to their bodies, especially when those objects are shared with unfamiliar users, and that such concerns negatively influence their evaluations of ABS. Consumers also exhibit less contamination concerns about ABS that have high brand equity, because of their elevated stereotype-related perceptions of the competence of those users. Firms’ advertisements depicting physical contact between shared objects and other users negatively influence ABS evaluations by consumers whose contamination concept is activated. This article provides insights for developing product, branding, and communication strategies to reduce consumers’ contamination concerns and maximizing ABS adoption.
Zhao, Dongxing; Corsetti, Maura, Moeini-Jazani, Mehrad, Weltens, Nathalie, Tuk, Mirjam A., Tack, Jan, Warlop, Luk & Van Oudenhove, Lukas (2019)
Defecatory urge increases cognitive control and intertemporal patience in healthy volunteers
Past research has demonstrated that moderate urge to urinate improves inhibitory control, specifically among participants with higher behavioral inhibition sensitivity system (BIS), and the effect was absent when the urge exceeded intolerable level. The present research examines whether rectal distension-induced urge to defecate has similar effects. Moderate and high defecatory urge was induced by rectal distension in healthy volunteers (n=35), while they completed Stroop tasks and monetary delay discounting tasks. The difference of average reaction time between incongruent and congruent trials in the Stroop task (Stroop interference) and the preference for larger-later rewards in the delay discounting tasks were analyzed as the primary outcomes. Participants with high BIS sensitivity (n=17) showed greater ability to inhibit their automatic response tendencies, as indexed by their Stroop interference, under moderate-urge relative to no-urge condition (128±41 ms vs. 202±37 ms, t64=-2.07; p=0.021, Cohen’s d: -0.44), but not relative to high-urge condition (154±45 ms, t64=-1.20; p=0.12, Cohen’s d: -0.30). High-BIS participants also showed higher preference for larger-later reward in the delay discounting task under high (odds ratio = 1.51 [1.02–2.25], p=0.039) relative to no-urge condition, but not relative to moderate-urge condition (odds ratio = 1.02 [0.73–1.42], p = 0.91) In contrast, rectal distension did not influence performance on either of the tasks for participants with low BIS sensitivity (n=18). These findings may be interpreted as a ‘spill-over’ effect of inhibition of the urge to defecate to volitional cognitive control among healthy participants with high BIS sensitivity.
Companies commit considerable resources to building brand associations that resonate with consumers’ identities and facilitate strong consumer–brand bonds. The current research investigates a potential disadvantage of this popular strategy. The results from three studies show that consumers with a high degree of self‐brand connection respond negatively to brand developments (e.g., brand acquisitions and repositioning) that change brand meaning. The authors show that this effect is due to a change in the identity signaled by the brand. The results contrast with existing research, which has consistently found that brand connections promote probrand behavior and serve as a buffer against negative brand information.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show that high similarity between a parent brand and an extension category can have a detrimental effect on how a brand extension is perceived to perform on specific attributes. This happens because similarity influences the perceived positioning of a brand extension: lower similarity extensions can be perceived as “specialized” products, whereas high similarity extensions are perceived as “all-in-one” products not performing exceptionally well on any specific attribute. Design/methodology/approach The authors test the hypothesized effect through three experimental studies. The authors manipulate similarity both within subjects (Study 1a) and between subjects (Study 1b and Study 2). Further, the authors test the effect for specific attributes that are physical/concrete in nature (Study 1a and Study 1b) as well as attributes that are abstract/imagery-related in nature (Study 2). Findings High compared to low similarity improves perceptions of overall performance (i.e. performance across all attributes). But as expected, the authors also find that a high similarity brand extension is perceived to perform worse on the attribute on which a low similarity brand extension specializes, even when the parent brands of the extensions possess that attribute to the same extent. This perception of attribute performance carries on to influence brand extension purchase likelihood. Practical implications The degree of brand extension similarity has consequences for how brand extensions are perceived to be positioned in the marketplace. Although high similarity extensions receive positive evaluations, they might not be suitable when a company is trying to instil a perception of exceptional performance on a specific attribute. Originality/value The authors demonstrate a consequential exception to the marketing wisdom that brands should extend to similar categories. Although the degree of brand extension similarity has been repeatedly shown to have a positive effect on brand extension evaluation, the authors document a case when its effect is actually detrimental. This study’s focus on the dependent variable of perceived performance on specific attributes is novel in the brand extension literature.
Ryckmans, Jan; Millet, Kobe & Warlop, Luk (2015)
The Influence of Facial Characteristics on the Relation between Male 2D:4D and Dominance
Although relations between 2D:4D and dominance rank in both baboons and rhesus macaques have been observed, evidence in humans is mixed. Whereas behavioral patterns in humans have been discovered that are consistent with these animal findings, the evidence for a relation between dominance and 2D:4D is weak or inconsistent. The present study provides experimental evidence that male 2D:4D is related to dominance after (fictitious) male-male interaction when the other man has a dominant, but not a submissive or neutral face. This finding provides evidence that the relationship between 2D:4D and dominance emerges in particular, predictable situations and that merely dominant facial characteristics of another person are enough to activate supposed relationships between 2D:4D and dominance.
Because trust-related issues inherently involve uncertainty, we expected individuals’ social-cognitive motivation to manage uncertainty—which is captured by their need for closure—to influence their level of trust in others. Through the results of 6 studies, we showed that higher need for closure was related to more polarized trust judgments (i.e., low trust in distant others and high trust in close others) in the case of both chronic and situational need for closure. Moreover, participants with high need for closure did not revise their level of trust when they received feedback about the trustees’ actual trustworthiness, whereas participants with low need for closure did. Overall, our findings indicate that polarized (either high or low, as opposed to moderate) and persistent levels of trust may serve people’s seizing and freezing needs for achieving cognitive closure. Keywords: need for closure, trust, uncertainty, interpersonal closeness
Trendel, Olivier & Warlop, Luk (2013)
Mémorisation des parrains : l’influence de la congruence du parrainage réexaminée à l’aide du modèle de flexibilité de l’encodage
Plusieurs études ont montré qu’un parrainage congruent conduit à une meilleure mémorisation du parrain. L’expérience menée ici démontre qu’une marque est mieux identifiée après un parrainage peu congruent et qu’en outre, pour un niveau faible d’opportunité à traiter le parrainage, les concurrents du parrain peu congruents sont quant à eux moins bien identifiés.
Priming Consumers with Baby-related Cues Induces Impatience
[Academic lecture]. SCP Winter Conference.
Previous studies have shown that activation of a general reward system promotes preference for irrelevant rewarding items (Li 2008; Van den Bergh, Dewitte et al. 2008; Wadhwa, Shiv et al. 2008). Specifically, priming consumers with hot cues (have them touch bras or rate pictures of sexy women) led to steeper delay discounting of monetary rewards among male participants (Van den Bergh, Dewitte et al. 2008). Also, sampling a product, high in incentive value (e.g., Hawaiian Punch) increased preference for anything rewarding (e.g., food, drink) in both men and women (Wadhwa, Shiv et al. 2008). We build on these studies to demonstrate that priming consumers with baby-related cues will activate the general reward system, as evidenced by acts of generalized impulsiveness.
In 2 studies, we provide evidence that women show increased variety seeking across different reward domains when they are in the fertile phase of the ovulatory cycle. In study 1, women who were closer to ovulation showed more interest in dating a greater variety of potential mates. In study 2, women who were closer to ovulation selected greater variety among existing flavors of ice cream. To our knowledge, these findings are the first to show a relationship between fertility and variety seeking. We discuss possible explanations and the implications of these findings.
Solid Possessions: How Objects Reduce Psychological Distance to Intangible Meanings
[Academic lecture]. EMAC conference.
Consumers frequently rely on objects (i.e., their possessions) for building a sense of self or for “extending” their selves. In this research, we examine if and to what extent the tangibility of objects is related to their self-extending function. Specifically, we argue that objects that signify an intangible meaning may decrease the psychological distance between the self and the meaning. Two studies provide converging support for this prediction. Study 2 further shows that consumers develop a greater attachment to an object that signifies a meaning which is (1) not directly experienceable and (2) personally relevant to them.
Lopez, Ines; Ruiz, Salvador & Warlop, Luk (2013)
Looking for Revenge? Talk to a Stranger
[Academic lecture]. EMAC conference.
When consumers are confronted with a negative consumption episode, they strongly tend to share their experience with others. This sharing process may influence the overall evaluation of the episode. In this paper, we analyze the effect of tie strength (the type of addressee consumers share the consumption episode with) and their interest in the product on the formation of the satisfaction response. The analysis reveals that strangers are better addressees than friends. Our results show that satisfaction is higher when the addressee is interested in the product, while anger mediates the effect of addressee and interest on the product on satisfaction. Additionally, our findings also demonstrate that the desire for revenge acts as a moderator in the relationship between anger and satisfaction.
Lopez, Ines; Ruiz, Salvador & Warlop, Luk (2013)
Consumers’ Catharsis and Service Failure: The Moderating Role of Stability Attributions and Regulatory Focus
